A Mars A Day

The last meeting of July saw another outing of my ‘Space:1889 – Cloudships of Mars’ game.

For those who don’t know it, it’s a game based on a 1988 Frank Chadwick design for GDW, set in an alternative ‘Steampunk’ late Victorian timeline on which Earther scientists have discovered a war to get to the planets using the ‘ether waves’ of space (this was actually a theory for a long time!). When the explorers arrive, they discover that the inner planets already have their own civilisations, at different stages of development.

In the case of Mars, the ancient society has stagnated (or deteriorated) back to the level of our own late Renaissance of Italy or India, with rival City-States using gunpowder weapons – along with the odd ‘ancient device’ like a La-serr…. By the 1889 of the title, several Earther nations have established both colonies, trading and mining facilities on Mars, sometimes with a City State as an ally, sometimes as enemies, exactly mirroring the colonial experience on Earth of 1850-1900.

And whilst ground-based forces certainly play their part, as on Earth it is the naval dimension with projects power across the vast, hostile wastes – using flying ‘Cloudships’ which rely on a rare anti-gravity liftwood to allow them to float. The Martians tend to rely on larger, wooden galleys, propelled by sail or giant flywheels; but the Earthers have been quick to develop their own strange craft, powered – of course – by steam engines, producing some very different designs rather akin to the ACW. In 3D… Anyways, there is a large body of RPG, tabletop and boardgame reference material (see links at the end), plus some ‘reimaginings’ of the various planetary sourcebooks.

The Set-Up

For this outing, I decided to have all the actual players as a combined ‘Earth Fleet’, with the Martians run by yours truly as umpire using the ‘fast play’ system developed for when we ran this at several Open Days a couple of years ago. This is always a fun way to arrange things, as I can vary the enemy ‘teeth’ according to how players are doing (as well as how many turn up on the day), and they can have a lot of fun simply trying to co-ordinate the actions of these sub-units via another human, not a dice or card system.

With one player per ship and a, ah, wide choice available, the fleet consisted of:

  • Jon – Royal Navy, HMS Tempest (1890 Improved Typhoon Class destroyer, with quick-firing main guns [2x shots instead of one per turn])
  • Tony – Imperial Russian Navy, HIRMS Volga (River Class strike bomber)
  • Eric – Imperial Austrian Navy, SMS Prinz Eugen (Hero Class light cruiser; only one built…)
  • Stephen – Imperial Japanese Navy, IJN Akagi (unclassified multi-role cruiser, refuses to discuss how many being built, where, when…)
  • Alan – French Navy, FS Massena (new Maréchal’s Class destroyer; like the RN Tempest – but more panache…)
Game 1 – The Bridge At Rik-I-To

The scenario here was that war was brewing with two of the Martian City States who had put aside their normal differences and were about to combine forces to sweep the accursed Earthers from the face of Holy Mars. Or something. Anyways, as their plan hinged on having one force cross the giant canal network, the combined Earther response was to pool their Cloudship forces to strike at the key bridge at Rik-I-To. If that could be destroyed, it would take weeks or months to effect a temporary repair. Of course, as it was an important spot, the Martians would be guarding it, not just with part of their fleet on standing patrol, but also with large deadly ground-based rockets…

[And yes, the plot was another semi-historical ‘steal’ of the main action in the Korean War film ‘The Bridges At Toko-Ri’. Great film of F9 Panthers, if you’re into that sort of thing…]

Now, being a simple soul, I rather expected the smaller ships to zoom in and take-out the rocket batteries before helping to distract the slower Martian ships? Yeah…. Anyways, plan B seemed to be that Jon, Eric and Alan engage in a general melee with all the Martians they could possibly reach, while Stephen and Tony ploughed in low and slow to maximize their bombing accuracy, with occasional pot-shots at any Martian who happened to get in the way!

So, with rockets and gunfire going in all directions and at different heights, the fight split into two sectors:

  • The ‘top cover’ proceeded to knock large chunks out of the three Martian ships, Jon using his bigger guns to deliver deadly jabs from a series of fast, slashing runs whilst Alan deftly manoeuvered to rake one guard ship which effectively dis-masted it! Eric meanwhile was in the thick of it trading broadsides between two enemy ships but seemingly unable to hit with any big guns! He was revenged however when finally ramming one of the larger galleys which Jon’s close rake with a rocket broadside had brought to a halt!
  • The ‘bomber’ boys meanwhile braved both rocket flak and the attentions of a, ah, ‘spare’(?) Martian ship to bore-in, line ahead along the canal. Stephen on Akagi led the charge, shrugging off a number of critical hits to boiler, crew and gun position hits to deliver his two sticks bang on target, with no deductions for speed:height differences. His score with eight d6 was a very respectable 24 points – but the bridge still stood teetering! However, close behind was the majestic Volga with even more majestic (=sloshed) Kapitan Tony, who proceeded, slowly, to ignore all the incoming hits and demolish the remaining structure, closely followed by the tailing even more irate Martian which the others now noticed! So that’s what those signals from Akagi meant…….

In all the dust, explosions and rocket trails, there was some confusion on the Allied side about who should get the most credit in the Official History for destroying the bridge (you know, the objective thingy…). So, I thought the easiest – not to say funniest – method of adjudication would be to ask the so-called ‘neutral’ captains. To a man, they had no hesitation in awarding the lion’s share of the credit to Tony and the Russians, with no national bias at all (except that Alan did waver in thinking the French should vote the other way to whatever the British did!). I thought Stephen as the Japanese took it very well, considering. All the talk of sabotage and revenge was just banter……

Game 2 – Get Marshal Mo-To-Ya

The second thinly-disguised scenario was based on the amazing operation in 1943, when the Americans sent very long range P38s (a fab a/c) to intercept Japanese strategic genius Admiral Yamamoto, who had planned and executed the Pearl Harbour attack (which only really failed because they delegated command to an old school ‘battleship’ admiral; but I digress…).

So, our 1889 version had the Japanese player (Stephen) brief the others that they had broken the Martian codes, and that the brilliant leader Grand Marshal Mo-To-Ya would be reviewing the various fleet detachments before hurling their combined strength blah, blah, blah. The key thing is, they knew where and when he would be at a certain city. Normally, this would be beyond effective range of Earther Cloudships, but the Royal Navy (Jon) then revealed that, apart from building the enormous HMS Thunderbird, they had also been quietly developing long-range re-coaling systems, a series of liftwood barges which could be towed then ‘parked’ at high altitude for later collection – like WW2 drop-tanks! I also took the opportunity to allow each ship 1x ‘elite’ gun crew – only a +1 to hit, but it soon became apparent how even a small adjustment to probabilities affected tactics!

The Allied flotilla thus set-off and arrived just as the Martian fleet hove into view through the clouds. The rather larger than expected fleet…. Ah. Yes, what confronted our intrepid floating heroes was not one Martian ‘Skylord’, one of the biggest Cloudship classes ever built, but two. As even one Skylord was estimated to carry the firepower of more half the Allied Flotilla, this was seen by the more tactically astute players as “…bloody serious…”!

Not only that, but the Grand Marshal also had three of the newer Martian ‘hybrid’ cruisers as escort, Martian built but incorporating Earther technology supplied by less scrupulous nations: big breech-loading guns and steam-power rams (although the latter were in fact clapped-out US train engines, refurbished and resold). Nevertheless, such an opportunity to cripple the enemy war effort before it got fully started was too good to miss, so as the Martians headed for the exit (off the far end of the table), the Allies resolved to sell their lives dearly (or lease them dearly, in the case of the French. Well, you get more return that way, and….).

  • As the giant Skylords were primarily sail-powered, Jon and Tony were among the first to point out that – at some point – these lumbering giants would have to tack (zig-zag), which meant there was more time to get them.
  • Learning from the first scenario, the players all kept saying to each other that the Grand Marshal was the objective, nothing else – so slip past the escorts if possible and pound the two Skylords with everything to hand!

Overall, the plan went quite well – Alan ‘stalked’ one of the escorts using cloud cover to get close before taking any return fire, while Tony and Stephen seemed to be competing for how much explosives they could throw at one ship! Meanwhile, as Eric took on the other Skylord with his now elite Skoda howitzer, Jon was perfecting his ‘left jab’, using his speed and longer, harder reach to knock seven bells out of an escort which was blocking his view (and in the process eliminating much of the bridge crew, thus making control much harder – not that they knew this immediately).

Stephen at one point sailed straight through the middle of the Martian Fleet, partly as his ship had good firepower in the armoured forward arc, but little else – except….. Yes, although he exchanged some withering fire with one Skylord and an escort, his master plan was revealed when he launched the rear-facing torpedo straight into the escort which was turning onto his tail! At that range – just outside the safety zone – the hit was inevitable, and the Martian visibly shuddered and began to lose height (that’s not all it lost, but again full damage was secret).

One great aspect for me with such games is how players learn to ‘read’ a battle, deducing both strengths and weaknesses from observable data. Such was now the case as the battle entered its critical phase, when first Alan then Eric mentioned that one of the Skylords, although damaged for sure, was not firing anywhere near as much as the other – which might mean that it was a transport, not the ‘battleship’ version?

Quickly deciding that the Grand Marshal would use the most powerful ship, the Allies now concentrated their fire. Jon now took quite serious personnel casualties from cannister rakes when closing to deliver a point-blank rocket barrage into the side of the enormous ship, while Eric also pounded it from the other side, starting numerous fires – bad news for a wooden ship! As Tony narrowly avoided a deadly ramming attack from the only functioning escort (sadly, the one with almost no directional control!), Alan and and badly-damaged Stephen sent the transport and the other escort into uncontrolled descents (the escort could probably crash-land ok, but the transport was not so lucky). As the Allies regrouped, they could see that only the smaller escort still had enough height (and control) to escape, but their initial fears about the other Skylord joining it were finally settled as the giant vessel, wracked with multiple fires and with key commanders dead on the bridge, made a long, lumbering dive just outside the city, in the manner of the Hindenburg………

So that was that. Another excellent outing for a genre which deserves a helluva lot more exposure, whether it be the RPG system, pseudo-colonial ground games, or this fabulous ‘Cloudships’ offshoot. It’s not the ‘flying WW1’ of Iron Skies, nor the Aeronef and Dystopian Wars – although the latter two did provide a lot of scratch-building materials! But if you like the idea of ‘3D ACW’, with the ability to construct your own range of peculiar vessels, then this is for you.

My thanks as ever to my long-suffering friends at Maidstone Wargame Society for playing, and The Werelords for resurrecting a brilliant game.

Click on the thumbnails below to see a few shots of the action.

Tactical aside – the Wrong Side of Technology?

There was a lot of discussion afterwards about the merits of the different ship designs – were the fast, sleek British and French (with only a handful of big guns, smaller hulls and crews), better than the rugged, somewhat slower Russian and Austro-Hungarians, with a lot more but smaller weapons? And what of Akagi, with an armoured nose housing all of its big ship-smashers in fixed forward firing casemates, akin to an Me110, but little else?

This all reminded me very much of similar historical arguments along similar lines both in the Victorian period (when turrets first came along), and then later about battlecruisers. In the latter case, they were great when used in their original role, chasing-down and destroying enemy cruisers, but were a disaster when used to bulk-out the main battleship lines “…because they look like them…”?!

In the end, both historically and with Cloudships, there was no ‘correct’ answer. The beauty of the system is that you can let your imaginations rip and, within the spirit of the game (the main rules have a sub-section devoted to ship design, with weight and armour affecting speed – and cost), create your own range of ships and models.

References & Links:
  • Background to ‘Space:1889’ on Wikipedia
  • More about the various games and RPG systems via Boardgamegeek
  • Several of the Cloudships books are on eBay, and some are now old enough to appear on some cheap download sites as PDFs!
  • The first outing of this – in 25mm no less – is still viewable here on the Werelords site.
  • Superb 1/1000th scale scenery (and lobbying to print some 3D Cloudships?) via Tony at Brigade Models. Go on, you know you want to….
Scratch-building 6mm Cloudships

A lunatics’ guide to building your own fleets…

HULLS & MAIN BODIES

1. Brigade Models – their rightly-famous ‘Imperial Skies’ range has some useful hulls and other pieces. And even though they are technically 1/1200th, you just have to look beyond that to possible uses… Recently, I have also used several of their vast range of very nice spaceships to provide the basis for things like ‘assault ships’, carriers, even resupply barges and landing-craft!
2. Peter Pig 1/600th ACW Naval range – A great source of whole or partial hull elements. By using ‘N’ gauge wooden planking as a main deck, you can use various waterline models as the upper and lower hulls. Also, some of the Union monitors come with metal decks, and these make for great ‘advanced’ Earther ships like the medium/heavy British ‘Macefield’.
3. DeAgostini ‘Star Wars’ die-cast models – given the wacky nature of several Martian ships, with a small degree of effort several of these models can be used to great effect. And as die-cast, they’re (a) good to take glue, and (b) damn-near indestructible!
a. I started with the various ‘bikes’, just used upside-down to help disguise their origin! The ‘prongs’ on the front of many of them look great as rams!
b. I also cannot recommend highly enough the ‘Jabba Barge’ (makes a great heavy Martian ‘Hullcutter’ type) and the equally fab ‘Desert Skiff’ (again, makes for a wonderful range of medium vessels)
c. But do check out the MTT transport and some of the other AT* tanks. The ‘Turbo Tank’ makes for a great ironclad (minus the wheels, naturally!). And the ‘chicken walker’ main body is a perfect Martian ‘leading chin’ design.
4. Eaglemoss ‘Star Trek’ die-cast models – not quite so many useful hulls here but still worth checking. For example, the early USS Antares, used inverted, makes for a fabulous small Earther French ironclad, in the same class as the RN workhorse ‘Aphid’. And some of the alien shuttles or freighters can make a good basis for more Martians.
5. Mechwarrior – the various tanks from the miniatures game (minus their tracks) have provided several very handy hull extensions.
6. Star Wars Starship Miniatures – no, not ‘X-Wing’ (unless you have a private income); I mean from the original game. These have provided a lot of the ‘tail controls’ for various ships, the Boda Slave 1 and Sith Infiltrator being particular favourites.
7. Galoob Micro-Machines have a very good Star Wars Jabba Sail Barge, which has provided, umm, ‘quite a few’ Martian landing craft, torpedo boats and even – cut in half – useful prows or flying bridges for larger ships.
8. Heroics & Ros 1/300th – Their WW2 armoured trains are a great source of cabins, armoured hull-extensions and side sponsons. Likewise, their Crusades range of siege equipment and superb armoured Hussite wagons provide great ready-made wing/sponsons for the Martians.
9. Irregular Miniatures – do a great couple of ACW ships actually in this scale, especially ‘Monitor’, which formed the primary hull for the RN ships.
10. ‘Dystopian Wars’ – again, nominally a different scale they have several ships which I have used for hulls or engine pods.

WEAPONS

Mainly dear old Heroics & Ros. Not only are they immensely friendly and helpful, but they have a vast range of kit which is spot-on for what you need:

  • WW1 guns (German 77mm etc)
  • WW2 guns (British 25lbr, German 88mm, 17ldr – all suitably ‘trimmed’)
  • ‘Oddities’ like the WW2 German Nebelwerfer; makes a great ‘Martian mortar’
  • WW2 Armoured trains (AA guns etc)
  • ECW, SYW and Napoleonic (French) guns, with the double-trail
  • ACW and FPW Gatlings, Mitrailleuse MGs
  • Colonial Landing Party Nordenfelts
FIGURES

As for crews, I have used the following H&R packs:

  • Colonial types and Franco-Prussian for Earther regulars, Boers & Confederates for armed civvies and ‘security personnel’
  • Gun crew figures (from the ECW & medieval)
  • SYW ‘Iroquis’ Indians (the light clothing and ‘Mohican’ hair-do is just right for Martians)
  • Ancient Greeks (again, the helmet + crest is spot-on for Martians)

There are some wonderful little vignettes in these packs – I love the guy with a wheelbarrow loaded with cannon-balls! And even the colonial gun-teams have a pair of riders who remind me of a couple of gunners on their break…
I did see some other interesting ranges in the USA – some ‘post-apocalypse’ types make for great Martians. Likewise, if anyone knows of any LOTR ‘elves’, they too would be good.

DETAILING

If even a klutz like me can do this, please give it a try – just adding a few crew figures and the odd pile of coal sacks really brings even these small ships to life.
Model railways have (especially in ‘N’ gauge):

  • packs of coal sacks, bales (cargo) etc.
  • some great ‘signal gantries’ which provided not only some great wing/sponsons, but also (cut down to half height) the ‘brass railings’ for the posher Earther ships.
  • Packs of wooden fences, which make for cheap railings on Earther or Martian ships

Mechwarrior
Not only hulls but most of the rocket pods came from these (the tanks are VERY well-equiped!). I also used some of the smaller weapon turrets as rail-launchers for Martian fire bombs or anti-personnel spikes.
DeAgostini die-cast models
Things like the Ewok ‘hang-glider’ and various solar-sailors provide a variety of strong, ready-made plastic sails for Martian kites, some with rigging!

Summer of 77 show game coming to Salute 51

The Maidstone Wargames Society is pleased to announce our show game for 2024.

The Luftwaffe approach the south coast of Britain and their first set of targets, the radar stations.

We present the Summer of 77, a world war two Battle of Britain participation game. Why 1977? I hear you cry. Our show game is based on a simple game that appeared in the 1977 summer edition of Warlord magazine and is the brainchild of society member Phil who has turned it into a full scale 3D landscape.

Fully detailed landscape of the English countryside, towns and villages. Not to mention those all important airfields and radar stations!

The game has already made a successful appearance at this years Cavalier show in Tonbridge and will make its next appearance at Salute 51 on the 13th April, we are table GJ05 on the show plan. If you’re at the show come and try your hand at thwarting the Luftwaffe. You can also find out all about the game including how it was constructed on our show game page Summer of 77.

Spitfires prepare to scramble to meet the incoming German fighters and bombers.

 

A busy weekend, Society meeting 24th February and Cavalier 25th February

Andy rounds up a busy weekend for the Society. Photos by Andy unless stated otherwise, header photo by Stephen.

Last weekend saw both a Society meeting and our annual trip to the Cavalier Wargames show run by Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society.

Only three games at the meeting on Saturday, perhaps due to some members only being able to get out on one of the days.

First up, David ran a Napoleonic Corps game using General d’Armee rules and figures from his collection. This was a popular game with half a dozen members partaking.

Eric ran a Judge Dredd RPG, only a couple of photos of this one I’m afraid.

Judge Dredd RPG
Judge Dredd Bar room Brawl

Finally on Saturday Andy and Stephen finished off their Lion Rampant Five Battles campaign, joined this time by Treasurer Mark and new member Charlotte.

Game one.

This was a Convoy mission, the Christians had to escort three “baggage” markers diagonally across the table, a cart, some monks and some civilians. The Muslim forces had to stop them.

Much reduced cavalry face off (Charlotte)
Andy’s convoy and escorts (Charlotte)
Egyptian Light Cavalry (Charlotte)

Game 2. This was to be our “Big Battle”, with two commands on each side. Here the objective was simply to defeat the opposition.

Andy’s warband
Andy’s Warband (Charlotte)
Charlotte’s and Stephen’s warbands
Stephen’s view point (Stephen)

We will post a write up of the final games in the campaign in the near future.

CAVALIER

On Sunday half a dozen or so members travelled to Tonbridge for Cavalier.

The Society’s game for this year was masterminded and built by Phil, and was a 3D representation of a map game published in the 1977 Warlord Comic Summer Special portraying a Luftwaffe raid on Southern England during the Battle of Britain.

Phil’s board, 560 individually marked squares!
Airfields and ammunition dumps are three of the targets for the Luftwaffe
A close up of the town
A copy of the original game can just be seen at the bottom of the photo

Society Meeting, October 22nd

It’s been a while since we posted any pictures of society meetings, but here are some from our latest meeting, which had a good turn out with five games in progress and around 20 members present.

First up we have a 2mm Ancients game using Strength and Honour rules, Republican Romans vs Germans.

Marcomanni & Suebi Warbands clash with the Auxilia
Same clash, different angle
Close up of the Suebi Warband
Line of battle

Our second game was a clash between a 100 Year’s War English army and some Ottoman Turks, this time in 6mm using Field of Glory rules

Archers flanking Men at Arms
Close up of Archers
Archers holding the hill
Cavalry charge the Men at Arms
Men at arms punch a hole through the line of Archers

Slightly later historically we turn to the War of the Roses, and a game based on the Battle of Wakefield, this time in 15mm using Sword and Spear rules.

Battle of Wakefield, starting positions. Jeremey feeling somewhat surrounded.

In the background you can see Stephen’s representation of Sandal Castle, you can see an article on its construction here.

Close up of the Yorkist right flank.
Lancastrian Left Flanking force
Yorkist Archers, the small dice show the remaining strength
Uneven archery duel, all units started at strength 3.

Our fourth game, chronologically, takes us to the East End of London, where things go bump in the night. A Victorian Gothic Horror game using “A Fist Full of Lead” rules in 28mm.

Just another day in the East End
A bit of a barney
Hello, hello, hello, what’s going on here aaarghh
It’s not even safe indoors
A Hansom Cab
Police raid a house of ill repute
They’s big n hairy & I be afraid of ’em

And finally, we go to Vietnam, with a 1:600 scale Air game using Thud Ridge rules.  Only a couple of photos of this game unfortunately.

SAM-2 site protecting a vital bridge as a Skyhawk attacks.
Close up of the Skyhawk, pursued by MiG-15s

 

Blood Red Skies, game report and review

Club member Marcus reports on Warlord Games Blood Red Skies…

I recently acquired Blood Red Skies (BRS), largely because my youngest son was given a box of Spitfire’s by a generous hearted warlord employee at the Broadside show last December. He was very excited (thanks Warlord!) and proceeded to watch videos on You Tube. This created a conundrum for me, however. I had seen BRS and been tempted, especially when Warlord offered the club a store-wide discount last year. I do like my aerial gaming. In fact, I have plenty of modern (well, post war) aircraft and some WW2. However, and here is the issue, they are all 1:600. A further problem was that Warlord had switched from the “Battle of Britain” box set to “Midway”. Now personally I prefer the Pacific theatre with all that combined naval and air action, but children like what they like. Anyway, I ended up with a Midway basic box set, Me109’s and Me110’s and duly began painting them up (because who else is going to eh?!) One I had finished two aircraft for each side we gave it a go and soon got the hang of it. I say that; I lost!

At the heart of BRS is a simple mechanic; a flight stand that can hold three positions. Pointing up, the aircraft is climbing and “advantaged”. Level flight is “neutral”. Diving is “disadvantaged”. Aircraft move in advantage order; from advantage to disadvantaged and in pilot quality within each of those states from 5 (Ace) to 1. A simple mechanic, which we certainly got all wrong the second time around. There is also some novelty in the shooting/victory mechanic. You shoot with your dice depending on pilot quality and aircraft weapon rating. The defender can try and block hits with a combination of pilot and agility (occasionally speed for deflection shots). Boom chits result from unblocked hits, but don’t necessarily equate to a destroyed aircraft. An aircraft might be downed but the chits are more like damage tokens. However, collect more damage tokens than aircraft on the table and you lose.  There are also a limited number of cards in each player’s hand which can be played on aircraft with the correct traits or as theatre and doctrine cards to affect the game. We also forgot about the tailing rules, which immediately disadvantage an aircraft tailed, for the first part of the game (I’m really bad at this aren’t I?)

This time we played with four aircraft each: 4 Spitfires for me and 4 Me109’s for the Oberleutnant.

We are playing on a mat showing Valetta harbour from Tiny Wargames.

Naturally, since we forgot a good portion of the simple ruleset, we seemed to spend a fair bit of time charging about not getting any shots in at all.

Early turn, how do you fly these things?
More formation flying, and an RAF near miss!

Lot of manoeuvring each turn to very little effect and a couple of shots that had no effect in turns 6 and 7.

Turn 6
Turn 7

Then we started to see some action…

A bit of a daisy chain. “What about that tailing rule?”
On the tail of a Spitfire
First blood at last – that’s more like it
Tit for Rata tat tat!
In for another shot
Getting the hang of this now

…revenge on the Oberleutnant for that loss in the first game.What do I think of BRS so far then? Clearly I know nothing, as evidenced by my account, but the jury is out for me. The Oberleutnant seems to like it in a way he wasn’t when asked if he wanted to play with my other aircraft, but was over games such as “Galactic Heroes” and “What a Tanker!” There has been some interest at the club in playing some Pacific games although I would need a couple more boxes of aircraft to get into the “sweet spot”; many of the designed scenarios to average out at around 18 aircraft. That isn’t cheap. The best price I could find on some Pacific boxes of 6 aircraft is around £22.40. I can buy 6 fighter aircraft for £3 from Tumbling Dice in 1:600 (in fact, I have some painted). Also, at 1:200, sometimes, a bit like “X Wing” the models get a bit crowded and things have to be fudged a bit more often. The latter game makes a good comparison; some expensive models, a bit crowded when you get lots of stuff on the table. BRS is quite expensive and you do get more (just not pre-painted) models, not as complicated generally and you can get quite a few models on the table in a decent time-frame. I think that somewhere in between is what I really want. I’d really like to see a Tumbling Dice/Wings at war carrier variant sometime.

But, if the Oberleutnant likes it, can it be a bad thing? And if it gets an outing at the club, that’s got to be good too right?  We will just have to see how it progresses with BRS…

Off the North Cape

Marcus takes us through the set up, models and rules for a clash in the air 1977 style.

I rolled out my sea mat again to do duty as the waters off the North Cape. While it may not have the typical dark grey of northern waters, I am going for a game in the continuous day of mid- summer, at least that is my excuse for using the same sea mat (it is the only one I have, and I like it)
I went for a foundation of the Wings at War rules, with some tweaks of my own.
Aircraft for the game, the TU 128’s and Tu 95 were from Shapeways. The former needed a bit of work with an emery board to smooth off the wings, although one was worse than the other, which only needed a light application. I don’t think the Tu95 required any such treatment. Both aircraft are much lighter than a metal equivalent would be. I have some doubt whether a metal version would work with my ring magnet and ball bearing mounting system. I really wanted to get the Tu128. I love the brutal size and power of it, based as it was on the unsuccessful Tu98 bomber in order to provide the range to defend the vulnerable north of the Soviet Union from bomber incursions. The Saab AJ37 is from Oddzial Osmy, which are available from Magister Militum in the UK.

I understand their models are slightly smaller scaled than those from Tumbling Dice but it isn’t immediately obvious, although I would be cautious about mixing the same type of aircraft from the two manufacturers. The Viggen is an absolute favourite of mine, with the double delta wings and the splinter camo pattern characteristic of the AJ (optimized for attack) version. The later JA (Interceptor) often sported a grey colour scheme which lacks the distinctive character of the earlier scheme. The Yak 28 was sculpted and cast by my friend Stu (he has been waiting too long to see this write up, but more of that later) who has created some lovely models at this size, in particular my “Stingray” collection and some lovely Arado E555 Luft ’46 aircraft! I painted it as a Firebar interceptor. Subsequently I used it as a Brewer E ECM aircraft, and I may just repaint it with the glazed nose from this version. All the other aircraft were from Tumbling Dice.

*Surface search only. ** 2 each of IR and radar homing
I added some adaptations cribbed from the “Phantoms” system, which is based on the Avalon Hill game “Mustangs” but I also owe a debt to Avalon Hill’s “Flight Leader”, notably around the missile and gunfire templates. I also added a radar and countermeasures (C/M) column.

The North Cape 1977:
The object of the game for the FAA was get the Buccaneers off the table and inflict damage on the Soviets. The Soviets needed to stop the Buccaneers and do some damage if possible. I set up the game with the Yak-28 on the northern table edge, and rolled an ace pilot! Two F4K’s came in from the west, with another ace and an experienced pilot. Things began to fall apart for the Soviets as while their ace detected the Phantoms, he was immediately blown up by a Sparrow from the Royal Navy ace. Unfortunately that was Stu’s beautiful model out of the game already! I rolled for reinforcements and the TU 128’s appeared, one green and one experienced.
Along with the Tu128’s, who were unable to spot anything, the Buccaneers also entered on turn 2; spotting their adversaries they dive one level to get into the ground clutter. The F4’s spot the Tupolev’s, but both fail their Sparrow launch roll.
On turn 3 a pair of MiG-25’s now appear for the Soviets and this time the pair are an ace and an experienced pilot.
The green Tupolev pilot detects the F4’s but one AA5 fails to launch and the other misses. I discovered a reference that Soviet doctrine often saw missiles launched in pairs one IR and one radar homing, to increase the chances of a kill. I forgot however, that I wouldn’t be able to use the IR missiles except at very specific angles and treated them all as radar guided. Meanwhile the Tupolev lead also fires a pair and gets one hit on the FAA ace. This is unfortunate for the Soviets as the AA5 is a big missile and more likely to get a kill from a hit. Meanwhile, the ace Foxbat pilot fails to detect anything, but his wingman spots the Phantoms. Unfortunately, the AA6’s fail to launch. The experienced F4 pilot gets off a sparrow shot at the Tupolev, but it misses.
The MiG leader detects the Buccaneers powering across the table at low level but can’t get a lock. They are too low and the angle is too difficult.
The lead Tupolev finally gets a lock on an F4 and launches getting a hit and destroying the F4 wingman. The ace returns fire but misses.
Now another pair of F4’s join the fray, one ace and one green.
At the end of turn 5 the Soviets have scored two Phantoms and the FAA have destroyed a MiG 25 and a Yak 28, but the Buccaneers got off the table too.
Turn 6 and the lead Tupolev has no missiles left and dives, but his wingman detects the remaining ace from the original flight of F4’s and hits with two AA5’s, destroying the Phantom. The newly arrived Phantoms pick up the MiG-25’s; the ace fails with one launch but the second is successful and destroys the MiG. His wingman sees two sparrows miss.
On turn six the remaining MiG can’t make a detection, and the F4 ace tries to get around onto his tail, but unsuccessfully. His wingman turns south. Both Tupolev’s try to evade with the lead turning east on full power at level two.
Turn seven and the ace F4 goes for a sidewinder shot on the second Tupolev but misses, while the other F4 goes after the lead Tupolev. And in turn eight gets a hit, but this only damages the big aircraft, which flies off to the east. His wingman however gets on the tail of the trailing Tu128 and on turn nine manoeuvres with a barrel roll and a sideslip to launch a sidewinder, destroying it. Not bad for a rookie!
Finally in turn ten, the remaining MiG, the last soviet fighter on the table, launches against the F4, which has turned north-east after destroying the Tupolev, but its two AA6 miss.
The Soviets destroyed two F4’s while the FAA scored a MiG, Yak 28, and a Tu 128 with another damaged. The Buccaneers escaped to make a strike on the Northern Fleet. Now you are wondering what happened to the Saab and Tu 142? Initially some things about this game made me think that I wouldn’t write it up and I set up a second game which included these aircraft, and the Yak 28 as the ECM Brewer E.

I subsequently set up another game with a Kashin Mod. FFG covering an amphibious group in the Skagerrak area, allowing intervention by the Swedes. It became apparent to me, certainly as the latter game unfolded, was the lack of Soviet short-range missiles on these aircraft (although subsequently MiG 25PD’s were fitted with AA-8, introduced around 1979). In these games they were all fitted out as interceptors and didn’t have any. In addition, I had given the MiG a wider turning circle. The radar rules seemed a bit restrictive too, and in fact the next game saw six turns of action with only one sidewinder shot, which missed. The Buccaneers failed to get a missile lock on the Kashin Mod. FFG (which also failed to lock on them) and then…I was told it was time for dinner and I had to pack up an unsatisfying game at an unsatisfactory point, especially since this time I had taken the trouble to label each stand with pilot quality markers. I had even named each pilot ready for the report!
More thought about the system will be required before I venture out to the North Cape again. And in the meantime I need to paint some Tu22M’s, get some decals for the flight deck of the Moskva and base both it and the Kashin. But I did nevertheless get some nice pictures of the second game.
On the horizon for my next game is to try WW2 Check Your Six, but I also have some ships to paint for Guadalcanal, so alternatively you might see those appear here next.

Air War Germany 1944 – Session 4

Me 110G-4s scramble

Our Treasurer has just realised that he had omitted to write up the fourth session of our campaign from the end of last year – still better late than never!

This session began with an attack by the Me110s of 3.NJG5, which had just infiltrated the tail of the bomber stream as it left Berlin.  The Me110s weaved backwards and forwards across the bomber stream using their on-board radar to detect and attack targets.  John La was first onto the score sheet, detecting ‘Q for Queenie’.  He missed the target on the first pass, but sent the bomber down on his second.

As the bombers headed off to the northwest, 3.NJG5 stuck with them and continued their attack. Three bombers went down in quick succession, the first, ‘O for Oboe’ to John, then ‘P for Peter’ to Andy and finally ‘N for Nab’ by Marcus in his first combat.  However, the bombers then struck back, as first Steve took damage and was forced to break off in an attack on ‘M for Mother’, then worse still Marcus was shot down by ‘L for Love’.

Lancaster MkI/IIIs of B Flight, 460 Squadron RAAF. Letters ‘J Jig’ to ‘Q Queen’

Now another Me-110 unit, 4.NJG3 of Steve’s 2.Jagddivision was able to infiltrate the bomber stream.  However, their attack got off to a poor start as the alert gunners of ‘K for King’ shot down John’s attacking fighter.

The bombers were now re-crossing the German defensive radar line and the Me-110s of 3.NJG3 were successfully vectored in to attack from their overwatch positions.

At this point we ran out of time for the day, leaving the raid to be concluded in a fifth and final session, which will be a catch up to bring all players up to 2 sessions played.

At the end of session 4 the points scored were as follows:

Andy (4JD)                        +1             +1 for Lancaster shot down

Steve (2JD)                        +1            +1 for GCI Intercept, +1 for tame boar                                                                                  infitration, -1 for fighter damaged

John La (7JD)                       0             +2 for Lancasters shot down, -2 for fighter                                                                     shot down

Marcus (3JD)                     -1             +1 for Lancaster shot down. -2 for fighter                                                                        shot down

Tony (1JD)                             –           Unable to fly

That leaves the individual League table so far as follows, with Steve just passing Dave at the top of league table, as he has shot down more bombers (4 to Dave’s 3).  1 JD keep their lead in the team competition with 11 points:

Steve (2JD)                      +6         2 sessions played (4 bombers downed)

Dave (1JD)                        +6         2 sessions played (3 bombers downed)

Tony (1JD)                       +5        1 session played

Mike (2JD)                       +3           2 sessions played

Chairman John (3JD)  +2.5        2 sessions played

John L (7JD)                      +1           2 sessions played

Marcus (3JD)                     -1           1 session played

Andy (4JD)                        -1.5       2 sessions played

Bob (4JD)                          -2             1 session played

Chris (7JD)                       -3.5           2 sessions played

Gulf Clash

Marcus eschews the beach and goes Top Gun instead.

We recently decided to have a virtual club meeting, and I decided that I might play “Full Thrust” or an aerial war game with my sons. However, they proved ambivalent on the day, preferring the beach…

Now, I do have a beautiful mountain mat from Deep Cut Studios intended for Korea. I think it may also work for Indo-Pakistan and possibly Iran-Iraq along the northern Iranian border, but at 6 x 4 it is just too big for my current table.

Since it is a plush rubber backed version I can’t hang it over the sides either. Until I find a solution, I unrolled my reversible, home-made sea/space mat, which I thought could serve as the Persian Gulf (that’s the sea side above).

I have long been interested in the Iran-Iraq War. Perhaps there is something about history that happens in your own lifetime. Now more than ever, I am far more interested in the Cold War than any other period, although I have only really ever gamed it at sea and in the air. I had painted up some aircraft for Iran-Iraq a year or so ago having read the superb “Iran-Iraq War In The Air” by Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop. I decided this was now the time to bring them to the (3 x 5) table, where the mat could hang over the edge.

As for rules, I have been waiting a while for further editions of the Check Your 6 Jet Age campaign books, which promise Iran-Iraq sometime.

However, I must confess that I haven’t played CY6 yet, despite having a few of the Jet Age books. I have played the Tumbling Dice Wings At War rules however. I have tried Thud Ridge and had tried a home brew Arab-Israeli variant a while back. Given that the F4 is featured in Thud Ridge, along with the F5 and MiG-21, I thought that gave me a rough baseline, although in the end, the F5s didn’t get on and I don’t have any Iraqi MiG-21s.

Wings at War uses a deceptively simple energy/action system. You must use all your generated action points through the turn. The actions you use affects your “energy” subtracting or adding to your turn start action point. The net result gives the action point total for the next turn. The majority of my aircraft are from Tumbling Dice, and all of those used in this game.

The figures in the table were a rough guess after a bit of further research. I think the Mirage is a bit low on countermeasures and I am not sure if the MiG 23 is a bit too well rated. The MiG-25 unfortunately never made it onto the table with an ace pilot.

I should mention that in Wings At War Thud Ridge, there is a column for afterburner and height. All the aircraft has an afterburner and I didn’t think I needed a maximum height. I added some adaptations cribbed from the “Phantoms” system, which is based on the Avalon Hill game “Mustangs” but I think also owes a debt to Avalon Hill’s “Flight Leader”, notably around the missile and gunfire templates. I therefore added a Radar and countermeasures (C/M) column.

I seemed to recall reading that on introducing the Mirage F1EQ, the Iraqis had tried making attacks on the Iranian F14s by making a low approach and climbing from underneath to find a firing position. My hazy recollection lead me to deploy a pair of F14s armed with Sparrow (radar homing – RH) and Sidewinder (heat seeking – HS) missiles against a pair of F1EQs, with one Super 530 (RH) and two Matra Magic (HS) missiles.

I rolled the Iranians coming in from the east at height 3 (one ace and one experienced – the Iranians were much better trained), and the Mirages from the west at height 2 (one experienced and one green). I also had a system for rolling reinforcements. At the end of each turn I rolled a D6 for each side. if the roll exceeded the number of aircraft on the table, I rolled for the type of aircraft to come on.
A word of note on the photos. The green dots on the Mirages indicate the inexperienced pilots. The blue dot on the F14 indicates the ace.

Turn 1
The Iranians came in and went onto a shallow dive to height 2 having detected the Iraqi Mirages. The Mirages also detected the Iranians and the leader launched his Super 530, which the Iranians failed to avoid and which damaged the Tomcat to give the Iraqis an early advantage. The Iraqis rolled for another Mirage flight.

Turn 2
The Iranians again had the first move, detecting the second Mirage and both F14s fired Sparrows. The leaders Sparrow failed to launch, possibly as a result of the earlier damage. The wingman successfully launched, but the target evaded. The Mirage leader dived for the deck, but his wingman went for an optimistic (and unsuccessful) head on shot at the incoming F14 wingman before following his leader down. The second pair of Mirages at height 3 dived to level 1 also.

Turn 3
The first Iraqi element tight turned to the north and west. Iranian reinforcements, a pair of F4s now entered from the east. The F4s detected the second Iraqi element. A sparrow destroyed the Iraqi leader and another damaged his wingman. Both Tomcats pull a tight turn, but it is the damaged leader who lines up for a Sparrow shot. This time he launches successfully, but it misses. His prospective target, the lone Mirage has spotted the F4s and climbed to height 3.

Turn 4
The first Mirage group turns to face the F4s, who attempt another Sparrow launch, but this fails. The Iranian leader tries to launch another Sparrow, but fails again. That damage is playing havoc with his electrics!

Turn 5
The F14s move first and the leader now goes for a heat seeking sidewinder shot, but misses! The Mirage pair turns after the F4s, but can’t get on their tails and pass them as the Mirages head west. The F4s heading north will try to turn after them…

Turn 6
The damaged Iraqi Mirage turns east with the F4s turning after it and the second Mirage group, who have pulled away after the F14 leader, who hasn’t spotted them. The Mirage leader launches a Magic heat seeker at close range and brings down the already damaged F14. However, the F14 wingman closes in behind the Mirage leader and destroys him with a sidewinder.

Turn 7
The Iraqi’s wingman now attempts the same on the F14, but he evades the heat seeking magic, the F14 then turns south and dog-legs for home on afterburner. The F4s try for a sparrow shot and the leader launches successfully. He gets a hit but only damages the retreating Mirage which also turns south on afterburner. His wingman picks up the second Mirage, but his sparrow fails to launch.

Quite an exciting last couple of turns, even playing solo. The Iranians lost one F14 with an ace pilot but the Iraqis lost two Mirages and a third damaged. Overall, the Iranians were more experienced, so the result isn’t too surprising. The rules worked reasonably for a cobbled together variant. There are some issues with playing Wings at War with a hex mat, as it isn’t designed for one, but I managed to get around those (you definitely need to add a sideslip maneuver!). The chrome add-ons worked pretty well, although I would have to codify them a bit for head to head play. I am tempted to read Cooper & Bishop again, and make a mini campaign out of it!

Now, I just need to finish off my Fleet Air Arm Phantoms and Buccaneers and I can do a Cold War gone hot in the North Atlantic 1972 scenario…more variants!

Virtually Meeting

Last Saturday, at Stephen’s suggestion, some club members held a ‘virtual’ club meeting; some played solo games or with family members at home, and three even managed to play a board game over Zoom. Here’s a round up of what went on.

Mark H, Mark J and Seán – Nightfighter
Mark H ran a three-player game over Zoom – he’s written it up fully in a separate report.

Marcus – Air Combat in the Gulf War
Marcus played a solo game of modern air combat using Wings at War; this will also be getting its own write-up soon.

Phil – Space Hulk
Phil broke out the new (ish) re-issue of Games Workshop’s Space Hulk with his eldest son; unpainted figures, really!

Stephen – Full Thrust
Stephen, whose idea this all was, went for some solo Full Thrust. Which just sounds all wrong…

Mark J – Kobolds and Cobblestones
Mark.2 played out a Fantasy rumble at the docks.

Tony F – Lord of the Rings
And finally, the webmaster played out a simple Lord of the Rings scenario (the one where Sean Bean/Boromir gets shot full of arrows defending Merry and Pippin).

Wargaming in the Pandemic – Playing Nightfighter over Zoom

As we currently have no meetings and gathering indoors is not possible, we have been starved of our wargames for 2 months!

We tried a game of GMT’s Nightfighter over Zoom.  The game uses some house scenarios that allow multiple players on the German side.  The main game map is enlarged and uses miniatures to substitute for counters.

There were four Ju88C-6 night fighters patrolling to intercept bombers over the targets.  These could be coned by the searchlights on the ground, spotted by the onboard radar, or spotted visually.

Here is the hidden umpire map showing the Lancaster position at close of play:

We played until a Lancaster was shot down.  Mark shot down ‘E for East’ after a four move duel.  The bomber spotted him before he attacked and got two rounds of fire, but failed to score a hit.

The Ju88 missed on the first pass from a poor position, then scored heavy damage on the second pass.

The Ju-88 mis-timed the third pass, but finished the target off on the final pass.

Sean had meanwhile homed in on a bomber with one of his Ju-88s, but ran out of time to shoot it down.

This was the game board at close of play:

A scan of the battle map was shared on Zoom with the players and annotated with the fighter positions, radar sightings and searchlight spots.

Game play is slowed, as moves have to be described sequentially, so the game would have worked faster with less planes controlled by one player with hindsight, but the board game hex playing surface does make a game over Zoom possible!  We may give it another go having worked out the snags.